At the last minute, Hurricane Gustav spared the New Orleans area a direct hit. Although the storm paled in comparison to 2005’s Katrina, there were still numerous power and service outages from the Category 3 storm. Yet wireless operators proved they had gone to school on previous hurricanes and hit the ground running with crews focused on infrastructure restoration and customer support.
For instance, AT&T had nearly 2,000 employees assessing damage and completing repairs to restore service for affected subscribers. Crews continue to work around the clock to repair damage and reroute traffic, making sure that all of its cell sites are functioning normally.
Before Gustav made landfall, a number of the operators – Alltel, AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless – had taken steps to prepare for the hurricane’s wrath. In the end, most operators reported that fewer than 1% of their cell sites were affected.
Not all cell sites were damaged, but rather affected by power outages. The dispatch of extra backup generators and fuel eased the network outage.
Also, Verizon Wireless sent a fleet of Cells on Wheels (COWs) Cells on Light Trucks (COLTS) and generators on trailers (GOaTs) to be rolled into hard-hit locations. It also dispatched its new Disaster Response Trailer to be used as a temporary customer service location.
“Hurricane preparedness is an important component contributing to our network reliability,” said Kay Henze, Verizon Wireless’ Houston/Gulf Coast region president, in a statement. “Advance preparation enables us to implement a comprehensive plan to make sure the network stays strong and calls go through when and where they’re needed most.”